


In search of buried treasure

by AirgiodSLV



Series: Behind the Sea [2]
Category: Bandom
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-06-10
Updated: 2008-06-10
Packaged: 2017-10-19 02:31:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/195862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AirgiodSLV/pseuds/AirgiodSLV
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>There’s a pirate hiding in the C-deck stairwell.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	In search of buried treasure

**Author's Note:**

> For [](http://greenet.livejournal.com/profile)[**greenet**](http://greenet.livejournal.com/), who wanted to know about that time William found buried pirate treasure, with thanks to [](http://adellyna.livejournal.com/profile)[**adellyna**](http://adellyna.livejournal.com/) for the look-over. In the same universe as [Behind the Sea](http://airgiodslv.livejournal.com/401770.html).

There’s a pirate hiding in the C-deck stairwell.

William eyes it warily for a second, trying to decide if it’s actually there or not. It looks like it’s there, but he’s been fooled before, and it’s not every day you see a pirate on a submarine.

The pirate bares hideously yellowed teeth and draws a sharp curved knife. It’s probably not real, but William decides that running is the best plan anyway.

He makes it about three steps before he smacks into Spencer.

“Shit,” Spencer says. “Fuck. William.”

“Did you see a pirate?” William asks hastily, craning his neck to look back at the stairwell.

Spencer’s giving him the ‘be careful with this one’ look, but he’s known William for long enough to only sound mildly condescending when he answers. “No…”

“Okay,” William says, finally letting go of Spencer’s shoulders and dusting himself off. “Thanks.”

He never thought it was real anyway. It just never hurts to be sure.

-

“I saw him again,” William says unhappily to the ceiling in Gabe’s quarters.

“Shit, yo,” Travis drawls. “You need to get this figured out. You tell Gabe?”

“He’s put everyone on alert,” William reports, frowning. “He thinks I might be seeing traditional stereotypical pirates as a metaphor for modern ones. The Pacific colonies had some trouble a few years ago.”

“Makes sense,” Travis muses, stroking his chin. “Ugly dude?”

William shudders dramatically. “Hideous. You should see his teeth. I think they’re actually rotting out of his mouth.”

“That’s messed up,” Travis says. “You need to get this dude off the boat.”

“I’m trying,” William complains. He can whine a little with Travis; no one else will ever hear about it.

Gabe walks in, glancing over as he passes, and there’s a very brief flash of William’s shirt coming unbuttoned before the image disappears. “Pirate?” he asks.

“Science deck,” William confirms. “He had a sword.”

“Moving up in the world,” Gabe says. “Thanks for the tip.”

-

“It’s not pirates,” William says seriously.

“You’ve been saying it was a pirate for the past week,” Butcher argues. He’s in the moon pool, working on targeting exercises with Dylan while William watches from the sidelines. So far today, no sightings on the science deck. William’s keeping an eye out.

“I said it _was_ a pirate,” William explains patiently. “But it’s not pirates. That’s not what it means.”

“What else does ‘pirate’ mean?” Jon asks. He sounds philosophical, like this is actually a question to be pondered for the ages. William’s hoping this is solved long before then. He’s getting a little spooked since the bathroom mirror incident this morning.

“Ships?” Butcher suggests, hand up high. Dylan shoots out of the water a few seconds later, beak knocking into the red ball suspended over the pool. He lands back in the water with a splash, sending ripples all the way to the edge of the pool to slosh over the edge. William lifts his legs up a little bit to keep dry.

“Danger?” Jon muses. “Attack?”

“Booty?” Butcher guesses, tossing a fish through the air for Dylan to catch.

“Treasure,” Brendon says from behind them, and all three of them twist around in unison.

Brendon has his lab coat on, one finger pushing his glasses up and scratching his nose at the same time. “Buried treasure,” he repeats. “X marks the spot.”

William looks at him for a second. He decides not to tell Brendon that there’s a pirate standing right behind him, one gold tooth glinting merrily in the nonexistent sunlight. The pirate picks something out of his teeth with a sharp-looking knife, then sucks his teeth in satisfaction and sheathes the knife. There are bangles on his wrists and rings on every one of his fingers. He’s badly in need of a manicure.

“Huh,” William says thoughtfully. “I think you might be onto something.”

-

“Arr, matey,” Gabe growls in William’s ear. William jumps and smacks Gabe hard on the shoulder to cover it.

“Not funny,” William says. “I think he’s following me again.”

 _I don’t blame him,_ Gabe says. _Your_ ass.

“He’s not checking out my ass,” William says, a bit cranky because the pirate seems to like spooking him when he comes around corners, and people have been staring at him all day because he’s been checking before he turns down corridors.

“You owe me a drink,” Gabe says promptly. He’s probably embarrassed because William always catches him thinking about sex, but whatever. It’s not like William can help it. It’s the way he’s _made._

He waves a hand in dismissal of Gabe’s opinions on lecherous pirates. “I think he wants me to find something. He’s been muttering and pointing a lot.”

“Does it have anything to do with the Barbados Marine Trust?” Gabe asks. “Because Urie won’t give me a fucking break about those reef balls.”

“Man-made substitutes for the foundation of an ecosystem are better than the loss of even one species,” William parrots, because Brendon is a loud thinker at the best of times, and his feelings on marine life are stronger than most.

“Jesus, not you too,” Gabe complains, and then stops abruptly when William grabs his arm. “What?”

“Barbados,” William says, and once it’s off his tongue, he’s even more certain. “The pirate. He’s from Barbados.”

-

“Higher forehead,” William orders, leaning over Butcher’s sketchpad to see. “More…you know. Curls on top. He had a…really high, yeah.”

“Wow,” Conrad says, leaning on one elbow to get a better look. “That is one ugly pirate.”

“Believe me, I know,” William says. “Give him more of a chin.”

Butcher obligingly sketches in a fuller chin, and with one correction to the cheekbones, the face finally looks familiar.

“That’s him!” William exclaims, which is when the pirate in the drawing comes to life and turns slowly to stare at him. There are rope burns around his neck from a noose. It’s really fucking creepy.

“I…” William says, and then turns and runs all the way to the bridge.

“Woah, woah,” Gabe says, catching him when he trips at the top of the stairs and nearly faceplants onto the command deck. “What’s up?”

“I think he was hung,” William says. “From a noose. In Barbados. Maybe not in Barbados, maybe _because_ of Barbados. Maybe he’s only from Barbados, I don’t know.”

“Okay, easy,” Gabe says. “We’ll check it out. Suarez?”

“On it,” Alex says promptly, looking completely unruffled in spite of the fact that he’s basically trying to determine a mission for them by doing a database keyword search for ‘Barbados’ and ‘pirate.’

“Tell me if you come up with anything else,” Gabe says.

William nods. He also checks around the corner before he leaves the bridge.

-

“I have more,” William announces.

“You have the same as the rest of us,” Gabe argues. “I’m only behind by a few chips. Now are you in or out?”

“Not in the game,” William says, although he does have more, and it’s not because he’s cheating by reading minds. Ryland’s upper lip gives him away every time. “About the pirate.”

“Yeah?” Alex asks. He tosses in a few more chips than he ought to, considering that Ryland’s lips are suspiciously quiescent. William doesn’t bother to correct him.

“He’s wearing a bonnet,” William says.

The pirate is, in fact, wearing a bonnet. He’s also looking at Gabe’s cards and shaking his head. William decides to stay in.

“Are you kidding me?” Gabe asks. “What, we’re looking for a transvestite pirate now?”

“A dead transvestite pirate,” Ryland corrects. “One with an affinity for fashionable headgear.”

“He’s also wearing pink,” William feels obliged to point out.

“Definitely a transvestite,” Gabe agrees. “Pink dress?”

“No.” The pirate has made his way around the table to Alex’s cards and started cackling. William pushes most of his chips into the center of the table and ignores Ryland’s raised eyebrows. “Pink coat. Well, sort of pink. More of a pinkish-orange.”

There’s a moment’s pause, and then Alex says, “Pinkish-orange? You mean like _coral_?”

“Yeah, you could call it coral,” William agrees, and then, “Oh. _Oh._ ”

-

“Stede Bonnet,” Alex announces. “The Gentleman Pirate. Probably one of the worst ever to sail the seas. Not worst in terms of doing damage, he was just a really terrible pirate. Hung in 1718. Born in Barbados, became a pirate to get away from his wife.”

“Now that’s a bad marriage,” Gabe comments. “I don’t suppose there’s anything in there about why William might be having visions about him?”

“Nothing I can find,” Alex says. William perches behind him and starts reading.

“Let me know if you come up with anything,” Gabe says. “In the meantime, we continue on to the Marine Trust for the treaty signing. Why is there a UEO banner in the bridge pool?”

William glances away from the screen to see Gabe holding one corner of an extremely soggy United Earth Oceans banner, which is dripping water onto the deck and his boots.

“Brendon took it down,” Ryan reports dourly. “It’s from the science deck. He hung a pirate flag instead.”

“He thinks we’re on the hunt for buried treasure,” Spencer explains.

“Well, we are,” Ryland puts in. “In a roundabout sort of way.”

“We are not,” Alex says mildly.

William says, “10 degrees to port, 40 kilometers ahead.”

-

“There’s over ninety square kilometers of coral reef surrounding Barbados,” Spencer says. “I can’t believe you found it.”

“I can’t believe Brendon helped you get permission to dig through a living reef to get to it,” Victoria says dryly, but she’s really impressed. William can tell.

“Never underestimate Brendon’s enthusiasm for underwater adventures,” Jon says wisely. “There were pirates involved.”

He gives Spencer a little secret sideways look. Spencer smiles back. Jon gets a really goofy little grin on his face. William stops paying attention.

“I like the coins,” he says. “Can we keep them?”

“No way,” Gabe admits apologetically. “There are going to be governments and museums breathing down our necks within the hour. The whole lot will need to be catalogued and inventoried.”

“That sucks,” Jon sympathizes. “We did find it for them.”

“What about this?” William asks. He picks up a silk handkerchief, frail and brittle with age.

“How did that even survive?” Victoria asks. “It’s been over two hundred years.”

“Preserved,” Jon says, shrugging. “It wasn’t exposed to the elements.”

“I like it,” William says. It reminds him of the pirate, for some reason. He could almost see the Gentleman Pirate pulling it out and dabbing his face after a rough day of looting and pillaging, inhaling faint perfume.

When he looks up, Gabe’s watching him.

“Tell you what,” Gabe says. “We’ll leave that one off the inventory.”

“Are you sure?” William asks, but he’s already holding the handkerchief against his chest. The pirate won’t appear again, he knows. This is all he has left.

“Yeah,” Gabe says. He’s smiling a little now, just around the edges. “You found it, you keep it. No one here saw a handkerchief in this casket, got it?”

“Aye sir,” Spencer answers. Jon just grins.

William ties the handkerchief in a knot around his leg and smiles.


End file.
